


A Good Swiss Watch

by Franzeska



Category: Multi-Fandom
Genre: Meta, Other, Video Format: Streaming, Video essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 02:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 0
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20686331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Franzeska/pseuds/Franzeska
Summary: Queer Coding, Slashy Subtext, and Why Queerbaiting Doesn't Exist





	A Good Swiss Watch

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the sources here are probably obvious. Here's a list, in order, of ones that aren't textually credited on the screen super, super obviously.
> 
> Athena being born from the brow of Zeus on an amphora in the Louvre's collections  
Song: Queerbait by The Queers (1998)  
No Homo art by still-sophistory (sophistry on AO3) (3/28/12)  
Sherlock and Irene, Sherlock and John from BBC's Sherlock  
Tyler Hoechlin (Derek) and Dylan O'Brien (Stiles) in promotional material for Teen Wolf (7/12/12)  
Daily Dot article on the EW poll snub (art by oldmanrenkas)  
John Ireland and Montgomery Clift in Red River (1948) - In addition to this subtext being visible from space, Clift was himself gay (or maybe bi--he was outed posthumously by others). It seems unlikely that this scene was an accident, even when one takes into account "it was a different time" excuses.  
Humphry Bogart, Elisha Cook Jr., Lee Patrick, Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Hammett replaced the word 'catamite' with 'gunsel' at the behest of his editor. Erle Stanley Gardner revealed this history in a 1965 article, Getting Away With Murder, in The Atlantic.  
Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989)  
Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead), a famous drag queen  
John Dall and Farley Granger in Rope (1948)  
Leopold and Loeb, famous murderers and inspiration for Rope  
Kirk and Spock from the Star Trek episode Amok Time (1967) - Yes, that's the one where they reveal that Vulcans go into heat.  
Becky Rosen, Wincest-writing fangirl from Supernatural  
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon (1987)  
Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone in Tango & Cash (1989)  
Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee in Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)  
That scene from Amok Time where Spock realizes he hasn't killed Kirk after all  
Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in Miami Vice (1984)  
Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys (2016)  
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz (2007) - The filmmakers have mentioned consciously parodying the homoerotic subtext of Hollywood buddy films. The characters are watching Keanu Reeves in Point Break (1991), a famously homoerotic film.  
Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes in the Transformers movies  
Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice.  
David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser in Starsky & Hutch (1975). Clip is from the episode 'Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back Into Your Hearts'.  
The Next One Will Kill You by Neil S. Plakcy. I actually like this book a lot. It's a fun thriller... it's just ageist, sexist, and bad at romance in the same way as a lot of other work by cis gay guys.  
Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon again  
Matthew Daddario as Alec Lightwood and Harry Shum Jr. as Magnus Bane in Shadowhunters  
Keahu Kahuanui as Danny Mahealani and Charlie Carver as Ethan Steiner in Teen Wolf  
Derek and Stiles from Teen Wolf  
Sherlock and John from Sherlock again  
Dean and Castiel from Supernatural  
Regina Mills and Emma Swan from Once Upon a Time a.k.a "Swanqueen"  
Clark and Lex from Smallville  
Steve and Danny from Hawaii Five-0. Clip is from 1.20, Ma Ke Kahakai.  
House and Wilson from the House, M.D. series finale  
Merlin and Arthur from BBC's Merlin  
Mary and John from Sherlock  
Mulder and Scully from The X-Files  
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally... (1989)  
Shipping stats graph by me  
James Flint and Thomas Hamilton from Black Sails, Ethan Chandler and Dorian Gray from Penny Dreadful, and Agron and Nasir from Spartacus  
Waverly Earp and Nicole Haught ("WayHaught") on Wynonna Earp, 1.02.  
Starsky & Hutch series finale--yes, it ends with them climbing into a hospital bed together.


End file.
